LAND- 
MARKS 
ON THE 
NIAGARA 
FRONTIER 



PORTER 




LANDMARKS 

ON THE 

NIAGARA FRONTIER 



A 
CHRONOLOGY 

PETER A/^ORTER 



NIAGARA FALLS 
1914 






Copyright, 1914, 
By Peter A. Porter 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIGNED AND 
NUMBERED COPIES PRINTED 

THIS COPY IS No 



AUG -8 1914 ©CIA37698G 



BATTLES ON 

West Bank 



Caledonia captured, . 


1812 


Queenston Heights, 


1812 


Smyth's Invasion, . . 


. 1812 


Ft. George, .... 


1813 


Newark burnt, . . . 


i8i S 


Capture of Ft. Erie,. 


1814 


Chippawa, 


1814 


Lundy's Lane, . . . 


1814 


Siege of Ft. Erie, . . 


1814 


Assault on Ft. Erie,. 


1814 


Sortie from Ft. Erie, 


1814 


Capture of "Somers," . 


1814 


Ridgeway, 


t866 



THE NIAGARA FRONTIER 

East Bank 

Onguiaahra, 

Senecas-Eries, .... 
Ft. De Nonville besieged, 
La Belle Famille, . . . 
Ft. Niagara captured, . 
Devil's Hole Massacre, 
Wilkin's attacked, . . . 
Bombardments Forts 

Niagara and George, 
Bombardments Buffalo 

and Fort Erie, . . . 

Buffalo, 

Ft. Niagara captured, . 
Devastation American 

Frontier, 

Black Rock, ... 
Caroline burned, . . . 



651 

653 
687 

759 
759 
763 

763 
812 
812 
812 
812 

813 
813 

813 
814 

*37 



J 3 



16 



COMBATANTS IN ABOVE BATTLES 

Indian (Inter-tribal), 2 

Indian — French, 1 

French — British, 2 

Indian — British, 2 

War of 1812, 20 

Patriot War, 1 

Fenian War, 1 



29 



29 



[3] 



LOCATION OF FORTS ON THE NIAGARA 
FRONTIER 

West Bank East Bank 

Buffalo Creek 

Fort of the Eries, . . 1600? 



First Erie, . 
Second Erie, 
Third Erie, . 
Fourth Erie, 
Fifth Erie, . 



Source of River, Space of 3 Miles 

1764 Black Rock, .... 1807 

1779 Tompkins, 1812 

Porter, 1844 



1791 
.1806 
1814 



Chippawa, 
Queenston, 
Drummond, 



1792 
1792 
1813 



Black Rock to Chippawa, 16 Miles 
Chippawa to Lewiston, 10 Miles 

Kienuka, .... 
Onguiaahra, . . . 

Hennepin, 

Joncaire, 

First Little Niagara, 
Second Little Niagara 
Top of Mountain, 
Foot of Mountain, 
Schlosser, .... 
Foot of Mountain, 
Top of Mountain, 
Eleven along Portage, 
Gray, 



1500 ? 
1 600 ? 
1679 
1719 

!745 

J75 1 
1751 

1760 

1 76 1 

1764 

1764 

1812 



26 



From Lewiston, North, 5 Miles 
Mouth of River, 2 Miles 



First George, . 
Second George, 
Third George, 
Mississauga, . 



1796 La Salle, . . . 

1799 Conti, . . . . 

1 8 10 De Nonville, . . 

1 8 14 First Niagara, . 
Second Niagara, 
Third Niagara, 



1669 
1679 
1687 
1726 
1730 

1757 



10 



[6] 



45 



DATES OF 

West Bank 



ERECTION OF FORTS ON THE 
NIAGARA FRONTIER 



First Erie, . . 
Second Erie, 
Third Erie, . . 

Canada 
Chippawa, . . 
Queenston, . . 
First George, . 
Second George, 
Fourth Erie, 
Third George, 
Drummond, 
Mississauga, . 



Fifth Erie, 



Indian 



French 



East Bank 

Kienuka (Aboriginal), 
Onguiaahra (Neuters), 
Buffalo Creek (Eries), 



La Salle, . 
Hennepin, . 
Conti, . . 
De Nonville, 
Joncaire, . 
First Niagara, . 
Second Niagara 
First Little Niagara, 
Second Little Niagara 
Top of Mountain, . 
Foot of Mountain, . 
Third Niagara, . . 



British 



1764 
1779 
1791 



Schlosser, 

Foot of Mountain, . 
Top of Mountain, . 
Eleven along Portage, 



1500 ? 
1 600 ? 
1600 ? 3 



1669 
1679 
1679 
1687 
1719 
1726 
1730 

1745 
I75 1 
I75 1 
I75 1 
1757 



1760 
1761 
1764 
1764 



12 



1792 
1792 
1796 
1799 
1806 
1810 
1813 
1814 25 

United States 

Black Rock, .... 1807 

Tompkins, 1812 

1814 Gray, 1812 

Porter, 1844 5 

45 

[7 ] 



DATES AND LOCATIONS OF BATTERIES 

ON THE NIAGARA 

FRONTIER 

West Bank East Bank 

MOUTH OF RIVER 1759 



6 7 



IN WAR OF 1812 



8 


Mouth of River 


6 




Youngstown to Lewiston 


3 


10 


Newark to Queenston 




2 


Queenston Heights 
Lewiston 


4 


2 


Queenston to Falls 




3 


Niagara Falls 




6 


Chippawa 




3 


Chippawa to Squaw Island 




14 


Source of River 


8 



— 48 — 21 69 

PATRIOT WAR 1837 



Canada Shore 

4 Navy Island, 



84 



[8 ] 



FORTS ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER 

IT is doubtful if there is elsewhere in North America an 
area of equal size, whose history better exhibits, first the 
explorations and later the contentions among the nations 
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for the control 
of territory and trade, than the strip of land which embraces 
the banks of the Niagara River, the connecting link, thirty-six 
miles long, between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. For Niagara 
was the key to all the West; its portage of seven miles around 
the Falls being the only break in an all-water journey between 
Fort Frontenac and the far ends of all the upper lakes. Spain, 
Holland, Sweden, France, and Britain all coveted and all 
secured a foothold on this continent. The tenures of Holland 
and Sweden were of comparatively short duration. Spain, 
with longer occupancy and larger possessions (her territory 
lying to the south), made but little progress in the settlement 
of the country. France settled the northern and Britain the 
central Atlantic coast. Both gradually but surely increased 
their areas, extending their control westward, until, in their 
inevitable contest for supremacy, France was entirely dispos- 
sessed. These two were the only European nations that ever 
secured any foothold whatever on the Niagara. 

The territory, known in history as the "Niagara Frontier," 
received its commonly accepted geographical boundaries at the 
hands of Sir William Johnson, who, so far as dealing with the 
various Indian tribes, was the most influential white man who 
ever trod this continent. At the great treaty held by him, in 
behalf of Great Britain, at Fort Niagara in 1764, there were 
present representatives of many Indian tribes from the East, 
West, North, and South ; from the Hudson and from the Missis- 
sippi; from near the frozen regions of Hudson's Bay, and from 
the sunny lands of the Arkansas. A British army (under 
command of General Bradstreet), then on its western journey, 
lay encamped at the fort. With such an argument, and with 
their recent hostilities to the British fresh in their minds, "the 
Chenuseo Indians and other enemy Senecas" were in no posi- 
tion to refuse Sir William's request for a large grant of land. 
Only three months before, in expiation of the "Devil's Hole 
Massacre," they had agreed (though it is doubtful if they ever 
intended to fulfill the agreement) to grant to Great Britain the 
lands along both banks of the Niagara River, from a point 

[9 ] 



some two miles above the Falls to Lake Ontario. The grant 
was to be signed at a Treaty Conference to be held at Fort 
Niagara during the coming summer. When it assembled, 
the non-attendance of the Senecas caused Sir William to send 
and demand their immediate appearance, under threat of anni- 
hilation. They came at once, and when they arrived he 
calmly requested them to enlarge their promised grant so as 
to include both sides of the river from the Falls to Lake Erie, 
of the width of two miles on each bank, and to formally com- 
plete the transaction at once. So the Senecas promptly "sur- 
rendered to his Majesty for His sole use and that of the garri- 
sons," the territory four miles wide, that is, two miles back 
from the river on each bank, along both sides of the Niagara 
River from its source to its mouth. The Senecas also now 
presented all the islands in that river to Sir William, who 
immediately transferred them to the Crown. 

He wanted Great Britain to have a record title to all this 
territory from lake to lake. At its northern end was situated 
the famous Fort Niagara, the key to the entrance to the western 
country. Near its center was that indispensable portage 
around the Cataract. Along the seven miles of that portage 
and for its proper protection, the army had just completed 
eleven blockhouses, and had also built a blockhouse at the 
brow of the mountain ; while for the defense respectively of its 
upper and lower terminals it had built, but three years before, 
Fort Schlosser and a new fort just below the mountain. The 
Niagara portage, in the fall of 1764, was the best protected 
highway in all America. 

At the source of the river, without even the formality of 
asking the permission of the Senecas who owned the soil, a 
depot of supplies (the first Fort Erie) had just been built by 
the British army, and was now "defensible," though not fully 
completed. That he might have a legal title to this territory, 
where he had just built so many forts, and the specific legal, 
as well as martial, right to maintain them, was the white 
man's reason for demanding that the red man publicly deed 
away the Niagara Frontier, and for compelling him to do so. 

In this article I make reference to some places, not included 
within the boundaries of the above designated Niagara Frontier, 
but not far beyond them, because of their direct connection 
with our Frontier History. 

Along that Frontier, for over 150 years before Sir William 
Johnson held that great treaty, and during the century and a 

[ 10 ] 



half that has elapsed since, there have been "many wars and 
rumors of wars," and in those wars four great nations, namely 
the Indians, the French, the British, and the United States, 
have borne their parts. And in preparation for, during, and 
as a result of those wars, each of these nations have, in turn, 
erected forts and fortifications within its boundaries. Of at 
least one fort that there is good reason to believe the Neuters 
erected on this Frontier, about 1600, no vestige remains; of 
two other Indian forts, traces exist; while of the many forts 
built by the white man on the river, or along the portage, only 
two (third Niagara and Mississauga) remain perfect. Five 
others still exist, three of them in ruins (fifth Erie, third George, 
Drummond). The exact site of one portage blockhouse is 
recognizable. Fort Porter is still maintained as a garrisoned 
post, but all its works have been leveled to the ground. Of 
these seven forts, one (Niagara) was built by the French ; four 
(Portage Blockhouse, third George, Mississauga, Drummond) 
by the British ; and two (fifth Erie and Porter) by the United 
States; and of them Niagara, the Portage Blockhouse, and part 
of George ante-date 1800. Niagara, the most famous of them 
all, the last of six different forts on the same site, was owned 
by France for thirty-four years, then captured by the British 
and held for thirty-seven years, and then surrendered peaceably 
to the United States, who have held it, with the brief exception 
of fifteen months during the War of 18 12, ever since. Over 
Fort Porter no flag save that of "the stars and stripes," and 
that always in peace, has ever floated. 

The location of these seven forts is as follows : At the 
source of the Niagara River, on the Canadian shore, stand the 
ruins of the fourth and fifth Forts Erie, and opposite, in Buffalo, 
is the now rampartless Fort Porter. At the mouth of the 
same river, on American soil, is the historic structure, the 
third Fort Niagara, which, during the latter half of the eight- 
eenth century, was, next to Quebec, the most important forti- 
fication in North America; on the Canadian shore opposite 
are the unoccupied Fort Mississauga and the perfectly outlined 
earthworks of third Fort George. On Queenston Heights are 
the earthworks of Fort Drummond; on the Portage road, in 
the American city of Niagara Falls, about half a mile from the 
river, are the traceable remains of the embankment that sur- 
rounded one of the blockhouses. The isolated stone chimney, 
that stands not far from the river bank, some two miles above 
the Falls on the American side, while not inside of either, is 

[ 11 1 



closely connected with the history of two of the forts hereafter 
mentioned (second Little Niagara and Schlosser), having been 
a part of the "quarters" for the attaches of both. It originally 
stood much nearer to the river, a large amount of land having 
been made by filling in along the shore with the rock excavated 
in the construction of the tunnel of the Niagara Power Co. 

The thus enumerated seven are all that are left of forty-five 
forts, all intended for permanencies, that were built on, or 
near, the shores of the Niagara River; forty-four of them 
between 1600 and 1844. Of thirty-four of the other thirty- 
eight, no trace remains, yet the approximate location of each is 
pretty well known. Parts of the fourth Erie and of the second 
George are included in the present remains of those two forts. 

The word "fort" is used here in accordance with the 
custom of those early days, when it was applied not only to 
forts of a larger size (of which there were comparatively few 
hereabouts), but also to defensive works generally, whether 
blockhouses, stockades, or earthworks that were protected 
by cannon, and were intended to be regularly garrisoned and 
maintained. 

And, in this enumeration, I have treated as a new fort each 
case where a new work either entirely replaced its predecessor, 
or so enlarged and strengthened it as to be really a new forti- 
fication — whether it stood on the exact site of the old one or 
near by it. Taking into consideration the needs and the 
periods of their erection, the forty-two forts which were built 
by the white men may be classed as follows : 

One of the first grade: third Niagara. 

Five of the second grade: second Niagara; fourth and 
fifth Erie; second and third George. 

Six of the third grade : De Nonville, second Little Niagara, 
Schlosser, first Erie, Mississuaga, Porter. 

Five of the fourth grade: second and third Erie, Gray, 
Tompkins, Drummond. 

Six blockhouses, very strong: Conti, Joncaire, first Niagara, 
first George, British Top and Foot of Mountain. 

Nineteen blockhouses: LaSalle, Hennepin, first Little 
Niagara, French Top and Foot of Mountain, eleven 
along the Portage, Chippawa, Queenston, Black Rock. 

It must be remembered that in each case these forts were 
built, not under the stress of immediate attack, but at selected 
strategic points, of materials deemed to be the most available, 
in the form, of the size, and of the strength that seemed to their 

[ 12 ] 



builders requisite for the protection needed. Along this 
Frontier, against the attacks of the crudely armed Senecas, the 
well-equipped French needed less powerful defensive works 
than they did later on against the artillery of the British. 
After their defeat of the French, the British (during their most 
conspicuous period of fort building hereabouts) had only the 
poorly armed Indians to contend with. During the War of 
1 8 12, the weight, calibre, and efficiency of cannon having 
increased, the resisting strength of the forts on both sides of the 
river had to be correspondingly improved. At that period, 
earth-work batteries, being capable of more rapid construction 
than regular forts, and gun for gun covering many more points, 
were the preferred form of offensive and defensive structures. 

Of the forty-five forts thus enumerated, nine were at or 
near the source of the Niagara River; four of them within the 
limits of the present city of Buffalo; and five on the Canadian 
shore opposite. Twenty-six of them were built between Navy 
Island and the village of Lewiston, a distance of 9 miles; 
twenty-three of these being on the New York side, and three on 
the Canadian side. The remaining ten were at the mouth of 
the river; six of them on its eastern shore, built successively 
on the same site, and four on its western shore. 

Of the entire number of forty-five forts, thirty-three stood 
on what is to-day United States territory, and twelve on what 
is now Canadian soil. 

Three were built by the Indians, before 1640. 

Twelve were built by the French, between 1669 and 1758. 

Twenty-five were built by the British (Britain, seventeen; 
Canada, eight), between 1760 and 18 15. 

Five were built by the United States, between 1807 and 
1844. 

In addition to these forty-five forts, over eighty separate, 
offensive or defensive, temporary batteries have been erected 
along this Frontier. A few of these were built in 1759, a few 
in 1837, but the great majority were constructed during the 
War of 18 12. So far as the efficiency of several of these 
batteries was concerned, they might be classed as "forts," 
with as much propriety as some of those enumerated above; 
except that they were all intended for temporary use and were 
invariably referred to, in the nomenclature of their day, as 
"batteries." 



[ 13 ] 



INDIAN FORTS 

A S to forts along this frontier, which may have been built by 
/ \ the Indians prior to the advent of white men, we can in 
JL .A. general only surmise ; but three, at least — one aboriginal, 
one of the Eries,one of the Neuters — seem to be certainties. We 
do not even know when the Neuters came into existence as a 
separate tribe; it certainly was as early as 1600, for in 1615 
Champlain speaks of them as well established. They lived on 
the north shore of Lake Erie, their lands, according to Sagard, 
being eighty leagues long; and thus extending from near the 
Detroit River to the Niagara River, and some thirty miles farther 
east. They had thirty-six villages west of the Niagara River, 
and four villages east of it, one of these four being Onguiaahra, 
on the east bank of that stream on the site of the present 
village of Lewiston. The authorities differ, though I think 
in an explainable way, as to the site of Onguiaahra. Our two 
authorities on this point are : First, the record of Father 
Daillon's visit to the Neuters, written by himself, and given in 
full in LeClercq's "First Establishment of the Faith in New 
France" (Shea's Translation, Vol. I, page 268); second, 
Father L'Allement's letter, describing the visit to that same 
nation by Fathers Chaumonot and Brebouef in 1640, this 
letter being found in the Jesuit Relation of 1641, published in 
1642. (Thwaite's Translation, Vol. 21, page 209.) 

Daillon's letter says "the easternmost village of the Neuters 
was Ouaroronon." 

L'Allement's letter says, the last village of the Neuters 
"was called Onguiaahra, of the same name as the river, being 
one day's journey, on the east side, from the country of the 
Iroquois." A day's journey then was about fifteen leagues 
(French), equal to about thirty-five miles, or half way to 
the Genesee River, which was the supposed Iroquois frontier. 

Daillon's letter about his own journey would seem to me 
to be more likely to be exact in such details than L'Allement's 
letter about the journey of others. 

Again, Brebouef and Chaumonot suffered greater hardships 
among the Neuters, and returned to their Mission in more 
deplorable condition, both physically and mentally, than did 
Daillon — therefore more likely to confuse details. 

Hence my deduction that theundeniably ancient Indian village 
at Lewiston was Onguiaahra, "of the same name as the river" ; 

[ H ] 



mistakenly located byL'Allementasthe Neuter's easternmostvil- 
lage — a very easy mistake, by the way, under the circumstances. 

Daillon's easternmost Neuter village would then be correct, 
and may have stood about one mile west of Lockport, N. Y., 
where are the remains of an ancient Indian fortification on 
the mountain; though I am inclined to believe that it is more 
likely to have been at Oakfield, Genesee County, N. Y., where 
are the remains of an extensive Indian work. 

The Neuter nation derived its name from the fact that it 
was at peace with both the Iroquois, who dwelt to the east, 
and with the Hurons, who dwelt to the west. Between these 
two latter tribes there existed a bitter hatred, yet in the villages 
and wigwams of the Neuters even these dire enemies met in 
peace. The Neuters were not otherwise a peaceful nation and 
were often at war with other tribes. They were a fort-building 
tribe, and it is therefore deducible that each of their villages 
had the usual fortification or means of defense. We know 
that their village on the Iroquois frontier was so defended, 
and we know that their village, known as the "Southwald 
earthwork," near the site of St. Thomas, Canada, was also so 
protected, remains of these forts being traceable to-day. 

Let me here note a very clear distinction between the 
village site and the camp site of the Indians, which should be 
specially borne in mind along this frontier. The shores of 
the Niagara River were permanently owned and, at Onguiaahra 
at least, permanently occupied by the Neuters until they were 
annihilated by the Senecas in 165 1. Then the Senecas became 
the owners of these lands, although it was many years before 
they permanently occupied them. Yet during all that period 
the Senecas claimed and exercised control over them, and 
continually used them for hunting and fishing. Hence, Seneca 
camp sites are often found along the river, and, no doubt, 
earlier camp sites of the Neuters may be located there. Numer- 
ous evidences of Indian occupation abound hereabouts; spots 
where old ash beds are uncovered, and hammer stones, arrow 
heads, etc., have been, and are, found. These prove that 
Indians once camped there, but it does not follow that such 
spots were the sites of Indian villages, or their regular abodes. 
Indeed, unless the find, when carefully examined, for a very 
large area, shows many and deep ash beds, remains of pottery, 
implements of domestic use and of warfare, and an abundance 
of flint chips, flaked off" in the manufacture of such implements, 
all in such abundance as to clearly indicate a long-continued 

[ 15] 



and permanent abode, it goes to disprove the assumption that 
the spot was anything more than a temporary camp. At 
their permanent abodes or villages the Neuters had fortifica- 
tions, palisades or palisaded earthworks. Onguiaahra was 
one of their permanent abodes before 1640, being the first 
settlement on the frontier of which we have any actual record. 
It was located, as were all such Indian towns, on high ground, 
that it might be easily defended, and where water was obtain- 
able in case of a siege. All over a very large area at Lewiston, 
there have been, and to-day are, often found relics and proofs 
of an extensive and permanent Indian occupation. There is 
no proof of this fort's exact site, but it can safely be said that 
at Lewiston stood a Neuter fort, which was probably the 
earliest really defensive work ever built on this frontier. 




' ,? ^lii/[|pw 



Fort of the Eries 
[ 16] 



The earthwork fort at South Buffalo, near which the bodies 
of Red Jacket and Mary Jemison were first interred, was a 
fort of the Eries (who are believed to be identical with the 
Kah-kwas), and so antedates 1653, when they were annihi- 
lated. Tradition names this fort as the spot where the last 
decisive, and to the former the annihilative, battle was fought 
between the Eries and the Senecas. Joseph Brant, in a letter 
to Colonel Timothy Pickering, dated Niagara, December 30, 
1794, says the Eries "formerly lived southwards of Buffalo 
Creek," and D. M. Silver, of Buffalo, interprets this as proof 
that that creek was the northern boundary of their territory, 
and the dividing line between their lands and those of the 
Neuters, east of the Niagara River. Accepting this view, the 
location of this fort would be on the extreme northern boundary 
of the Eries' territory and confronting that of the Senecas', 
which the latter had acquired two years before, through their 
conquest of the Neuters. 

The authorities and the deductions support the ancient 
Indian tradition, handed down even to the present day, that 
this was a fort of the Eries. 

Not within the limits of the frontier as given above, but 
only about a mile and a half distant from it, is the site of one 
of the most interesting spots in all America in Indian history — 
the ancient rock citadel of Kienuka. The Indian traditions 
regarding it, as gathered from the story of Elias Johnson, the 
historian of the Tuscarora Tribe, is one that fascinates. 

The word means a fort or stronghold, while the original 
designation of the spot was Gau-strau-yea, meaning "Bark 
laid down"; its metaphorical meaning, being in the similitude 
of freshly peeled slippery-elm bark, laid throughout the fort 
as a flooring, so that persons going in should be most careful 
and act according to the laws of the place or they might slip 
and fall to their destruction. Tradition says that at the 
formation of the Iroquois Confederacy, a virgin was selected 
from the Squawkihaw Nation, ordained as queen or peace- 
maker, and stationed at this fort to execute her office of peace — 
her official name being Ge-keah-saw-sa. 

The fort was built by the Squawkihaws and Senecas, the 
former living along the Niagara River. It was situated on the 
very edge of the Niagara escarpment, which is the old shore of 
Lake Ontario. On the east, west, and south was dug a trench 
and in it were set upright posts, projecting ten or twelve feet 
above the ground, enclosing a space about twenty by fifty rods. 

[ 17 ] 



The queen's house was in the center of the enclosure, and 
adjacent houses were built in two rows, one on each side of 
the queen's house. 

The entrances to the fort were at the east and west ends, 
the doors of the queen's house, respectively, facing the entrances. 




Fortress of Kienuka 



The queen was selected by the Iroquois or Five Nations, 
and to enforce her decrees, the entire strength of the Confed- 
eracy was pledged. A suitable number of warriors were selected 
from the Squawkihaw tribe, their bravest and ablest warriors; 
and these were stationed here to keep it in order and to enforce 
its laws. Kienuka was decreed to be a Fort of Refuge. At 
the formation of the Confederacy the law was established that 
no nation belonging thereto should make war against any 
other nation of the league, and that the Iroquois should not 
war against any alien nation without the consent of the queen. 
Kienuka was ever to be held sacred as a place of peace, and 
no blood was ever to be shed within its gates, any executions 
decreed by the queen were to be made outside the fort; and 
no one aside from the keepers should ever move faster than a 
walk within its enclosure. The queen must at all hours have 
food — it was designated "A kettle of hominy" — ready for 
fugitives and persons, no matter of what tribe nor from what 
part of the continent. All fugitives, irrespective of nation- 
ality, fleeing from an enemy — once their feet touched the 
threshold here, were safe from attack while they remained. 

[ 18 ] 



On reaching the fort, the queen would lead the fugitive into 
one end of her house, which was divided by a deer skin curtain 
in the center. When the pursuers arrived, she would conduct 
them into the other end of her house. She would give food 
to each, and then pull aside the curtain, and let them face 
each other. Both pursuers and pursued could then depart 
to their homes in peace. It was contrary to law, after a fugi- 
tive had reached Kienuka, and gone out from there, for his 
enemies to murder him without the queen's consent. Was this 
law violated, the Iroquois Confederacy were to demand the 
offender from the nation to which he belonged. If delivered up, 
he was to be put to death; if not delivered up, that nation 
was to suffer the devastations of war at the hands of the 
Iroquois. 

Elias Johnson says the Kah-kwahs and Eries were branches 
of the Squawkihaws; all being of one language and nation — 
the former deriving their name from their settlement, named 
Kah-kwah-ka, near Buffalo. 

Resentment grew up on the part of the Squawkihaws against 
the Senecas, because the latter were victorious in several contests 
to which the former challenged them. The Peace Queen, 
being a Squawkihaw, though ordained to her office by the 
Iroquois Confederacy, shared in their resentment against the 
Senecas. 

Soon after, a party of Senecas scouting on the west of the 
Niagara River, were pursued by the Masassaukas, and at 
night reached Kienuka, where their pursuers followed them. 
Both laid down to sleep in peace, as they were wont to do 
within this fortress. But in the stillness of the night the 
treachery of the queen was tested. The Masassaukas asked 
her consent to murder the Senecas as they slept. She gave 
her consent and they were massacred, and buried southwest 
of the fort — the mound over them being recognizable until 
the early half of the nineteenth century. This breach of the 
law of the fort, the queen's consenting to the shedding of 
blood in that sacred place, grated on the conscience of the 
Squawkihaws; and knowing that their punishment would 
speedily follow, they urged the queen to consent to their 
exterminating the Senecas, and she finally consented. They 
planned to attack the Senecas unaware. By chance, a Seneca 
who had married a Squawkihaw lived near the fort, learned 
of the queen's consent and informed the Seneca's chiefs. 
Thus advised, the Senecas assembled their warriors, and 

[ 19 ] 



when the Squawkihaws arrived to annihilate them, they gave 
battle, and at the end the Senecas had killed or taken prisoners 
all their warriors, and the Squawkihaws were ended as a nation. 

The fortress of Kienuka was forever abandoned as a Fort 
of Refuge; and according to Seneca tradition it was 600 
years before another Peace Queen was ordained — which 
event happened about the middle of the nineteenth century, 
when Caroline Parker, of the Tonawanda Senecas, was elected 
to the office. 

This tradition does not fit in with history, so far as the 
occupation of the Niagara Frontier by the Neuters is con- 
cerned; yet, as to Kienuka being the principal, if not, indeed, 
the only Indian Fort of Refuge in the northeastern portion of 
the United States of to-day (there were other known Indian 
Forts of Refuge in the South and Southwest), there is every 
possibility of its being correct. 

The tradition of its being a Peace Fort, and, therefore, in 
its day the best-known ancient Iroquois fortress, as well as 
the early date assigned to its erection, makes it a most historic 
spot. 

In 1905, a mound, some 500 feet southwest of the fortress 
which had been mapped by Henry R. Schrolcraft in 1846, was 
opened, and numerous bones, and skulls, two sword blades, 
brass kettles, shells, pipes, bits of French pottery, as well as 
Indian pottery, and over 4,000 discoidal beads were dug up. 
The date of the burial was considered to be 1640, the last of 
the ten-year burial ceremonies of the Neuters, thus adding 
additional proof of the occupation of the eastern shore of the 
Niagara River by the Neuters. Situated three and a half miles 
east of that river, Kienuka was doubtless used by the Neuters 
during their occupation of this region as a lookout or outpost 
for the protection of their larger village, Onguiaahra, situated 
to the west, on the plain below. 



[ 20 



FRENCH FORTS 

FRENCHMEN had been on the Niagara River before 
1640. Brule, Champlain's interpreter, was in western 
New York in 1615 ; but was never on our river. French 
traders or "coureurs de bois" had been there perhaps before, 
no doubt soon after, that date. Father Daillon was there 
in 1626. Fathers Breboeuf and Chaumonot were there, 
on their mission to the Neuters, in 1640. But all these 
sought either trade as individuals, or the spread of the 
Gospel. In 1669, however, there came to this region a 
man primarily on a voyage of discovery, and, as a result, 
seeking control of the western Indian trade; but neces- 
sarily he sought the resultant control by France over the 
Indian tribes and their territory, and such control meant fort- 
building. In company with de Casson and Gallinee, and 
their joint party, LaSalle in that year passed the mouth of the 
Niagara River, went as far west as the end of Lake Ontario, 
then, accompanied by a few men, turned back, ostensibly to 
return to Montreal, leaving the Fathers to proceed to and 
winter on the north shore of Lake Erie. Of LaSalle, during 
the next two years, we know little, only that he reached the Ohio 
in 1670; and made a trip on Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michi- 
gan in 1 67 1. My own belief is that he and his small party 
went from the western end of Lake Ontario to the Niagara 
River, of whose importance as the "great river of the Neutrals" 
he^had heard, and whose mouth he, no doubt, as he passed it 
shortly before, recognized as a desirable point for trade and as 
a base of supplies. At its mouth, I think, he spent the winter 
of 1 669- 1 670. For here, according to the official report of 
de Nonville (made in 1686), he built "logements" or quarters 
in 1668. This date is clearly an error, and should be 1669, 
for LaSalle was never in the Niagara region until 1669. The 
destruction of these "quarters" of LaSalle's by the Senecas, 
in 1675, was given by de Nonville as one of the main reasons 
for his expedition against them in 1687. In building quarters 
for himself and his party in an unknown and semi-hostile 
country, LaSalle doubtless made them defensible from attack. 
Hence, in 1669, on the site of Fort Niagara, LaSalle built the 
first white man's house on the frontier. It was a temporary 
fort and I include it in my list of forts, and name it Fort LaSalle. 
In 1670, de Courcelles, governor-general of Canada, is said to 

[21 ] 



have recommended to his government the erection of a regular 
fort on the Niagara River. If so, he was probably instigated 
by suggestions made to him by LaSalle, after the latter re- 
turned to Quebec that year. In 1673, LaSalle himself was 
again in Quebec, and that year Frontenac, then governor- 
general, a personal friend of LaSalle, and without doubt 
at his request, recommended the erection of such a fort, and 
renewed the recommendation the following year. In 1678, 
LaSalle, finding that the French Government paid no attention 
to the project of a fort on the Niagara, arranged to build it as 
a private venture, in connection with his projected western 
explorations and for the building of forts where he thought 
necessary in connection therewith, for which he had obtained 
official consent in "Letters Patent." In December of that 
year, the advance party of his expedition, under command of 
LaMotte, in a brigantine of ten tons, entered the Niagara 
River; and some days later, near the site of Lewiston, they built 
a cabin, surrounded with palisades, which, though intended 
for a "fort," under the name of a "magazine," they felt com- 
pelled, in order to allay the suspicions of the Senecas, to call 
"an habitation." For the purpose of giving a distinctive 
name to this structure, the first one on the river that is recorded 
as being "palisaded," or protected, I have assumed to call it 




Fort Hennepin 

Fort Hennepin, after the priest and historian of the expedition, 
who helped to construct it. It seems, perhaps, incongruous to 
name a fort after a priest; but Hennepin was a very worldly 
Father, took a prominent part in furthering the commercial 
features of the expedition, and, by publishing the earliest 
detailed description and picture of Niagara Falls, has 
associated his name forever with this region, so it may be 
pardoned. 

[22 ] 



In January, 1679, LaSalle obtained the consent of the 
Senecas to the erection of a storehouse at the mouth of the 
river, and a few days later, in the presence of Tonti, Hennepin, 
and LaMotte, he traced out, on the high bank there, the 
outlines of the structure, to which he had two months earlier 
promised to give the name of "Fort Conti." It consisted of 




Fort Conti 



two blockhouses, forty feet square, built of logs, and connected 
by palisades. It stood on the point of land now embraced 
within the limits of the earthworks of Fort Niagara; but in 
the following August, through the carelessness of the sergeant 
in charge, this first pretentious defensive structure on the 
Niagara was reduced to ashes. It was the first distinctly 
so-called "fort" built by white men west of Frontenac. To 
LaSalle must be given all the credit for the first "fortification" 
of this frontier. He first saw the needs and benefits of it, 
and through official channels had urged it upon the French 
Government. When he could get no assistance in that direc- 
tion, he accomplished it at his own expense. Seven years 
later, France recognized, and recognized most decidedly, the 
desirability of a fort at this point. In 1687, de Nonville, 
after defeating the Senecas in the Genesee Valley, led his army 
to Niagara, where, in July of that year, on the site of the 
burned Fort Conti, he constructed a fort "of pales with four 
bastions," which he named after himself, "Fort de Nonville." 
He left in it a garrison of one hundred men, with provisions for 
eight months. No sooner had his army started eastwards, 




than the Senecas, who, though defeated, had not been sub- 
dued, besieged it, maintaining the siege all winter. In the 
spring, its garrison, then reduced to a dozen men, was rein- 
forced. On the erection of the fort, the British had promptly 
demanded its demolition, and the Senecas, at British instiga- 
tion, refused to consider negotiations with France for a treaty 
of peace so long as it existed. So, in the summer of 1688, 
de Nonville, under compulsion, gave orders for its destruction. 
The French evacuated it, having first torn down the pales, but 
leaving the buildings, seven in number, and a great Cross, 
eighteen feet high, which stood on the parade ground, intact. 
The Senecas probably did not allow even these evidences of a 
hostile occupation of their territory to remain long. 

Baron La Hontan, who had helped to build this fort, and 
had then been ordered to the west, had a soldier's eye for 
strategic sites ; for, as soon as he saw the present site of Buffalo, 
he declared it to be a most desirable point for a fort, and on a 
map which he included in his subsequent book, he there 
marked "Fort Suppose"; but no move was ever made by the 
French towards its erection. 

During the next thirty years no fort was erected on the 
Niagara, though both France and Britain were watching for 
an opportunity to build one, and the influence of the French 
over the Senecas was constantly increasing. In 1 7 19, through 
the personality of Joncaire, a Frenchman by birth, but a 
Seneca by adoption, the man w T ho spoke "with all the good 
sense of a Frenchman, and with all the eloquence of an Iro- 
quois," France obtained the consent of the Senecas to the 
erection of a house on the Niagara. The Senecas had pre- 
viously told Joncaire that he might build a house for himself 
wherever he chose ; and he now selected a site on the eastern 
bank of the Niagara River at the foot of the Trail or Portage, 
and here he built the first "trading house" in the western 
Indian country. The Senecas, true to their friendship for 
the French, but on the ground that Joncaire was a child of 
their nation, refused Britain's urgent demand for its demoli- 
tion; they also refused her subsequent demand for permission 
to erect a similar "trading house" on the river. 

Within a year Joncaire had enlarged his original "cabin" 
into a "blockhouse, forty feet long by thirty feet wide, musket 
proof, with port holes and surrounded by palisades." He 
was its "commander"; it was styled "Magazin Royal," and 
over it floated the flag bearing the Lillies of France. It 

[24 ] 



became a great center of trade, its attendants were French 
soldiers, and in it France again had a real fort on the Niagara. 
In 1726, so well had Joncaire played his part, the French 
obtained the consent of the Iroquois to the erection of a stone 
house "on the river," and one hundred men were sent to build 




Fort Joncaire 

it. The engineer, Chassegross de Levy, saw the superior 
advantages of the site at the mouth of the river, seven miles 
away; and, contrary to his official instructions, but very possibly 
in accordance with secret orders, built there (and not alongside 
of Joncaire's fort), a very large single structure, which is to-day 
the "castle" at modern Fort Niagara. LaSalle's plan of fifty 
years before was now a reality, and on the site of Fort Conti 
was thus commenced a fort destined in a few years to become 
the most important fortification on the lakes, and to play a 
most historic part in the history of the Iroquois, of the French, 
of their conquerors, the British, and of Britain's seceding and 
victorious colonies, the United States of America. The new 
structure was a large stone house, which later on became the 
residence of the French, and still later the residence of the 
British commandants, and was by them designated as "The 
Castle"; a name it has retained ever since. It was a two- 
story structure, the oldest masonry on the frontier, or west 
of Albany. The British protested vigorously against the main- 
tenance of this stone house, and used all their influence with 
the other five Iroquois nations (the Senecas, the sixth nation 
of the Confederacy, were the firm friends of the French) to 

[25 ] 



have it torn down. But it was unavailing; the stone house, 
the first Fort Niagara, remained and in French possession, 
joncaire's house, at the foot of the Portage, had served its pur- 
pose and served it well; now it was allowed to fall into decay. 

After it had been settled that France's ownership of this 
new house, or fort, was not to be disturbed, she proceeded to 
construct around it a real fort. Ramparts made of pickets, 
with four bastions, and enclosing about an acre of ground, 
were constructed around the buildings. This fortification, a 
fortress in every sense of the word, the second Fort Niagara, 
must have been finished about 1730; for by 1736 it mounted 
thirty guns. By 1739 the pickets of the ramparts had decayed 
and were falling down, necessitating repairs. The location 
and relative size of this second Fort Niagara is shown by 
Pouchot, on his map or plan of the greater fort, as it was when, 
under his command, it was besieged and captured by the 
British, in 1759. 

French influence over the Senecas was now absolute and 




Fort Niagara, Pouchot's Plan, 1759 
[ 26 1 



was in the ascendency among the western tribes, where French 
forts multiplied. The fur trade between Detroit, then the 
great western metropolis for peltries, and Quebec, by way of 
Fort Niagara, was very large. So great was the value of the 
military stores and the merchandise of the traders going west, 
and of the canoe loads of furs coming east, that it became 
necessary to erect some fortification at the upper end of the 
Portage, as a protection for this commerce. About 1745, a 
small fort or blockhouse, also a storehouse, was erected at 
this point, which is still called "the Frenchmen's Landing," 
and is situated just above the entrance of the Hydraulic Canal 
in the city of Niagara Falls. DeWitt Clinton, who was at 
Niagara in 18 10, noted the "remains of stone buildings" at 
this spot. Local historians, of the succeeding generation, have 
also told of these remains, which were those of the first Little 
Niagara. But the current above was too swift, and the rapids 
below were too near, to permit the Frenchmen's heavily laden 
boats, which, with the increase of commerce, were gradually 
enlarged, to be handled with ease and safety at this point. So, 
in 1 75 1, this upper end of the portage was moved about half 
a mile up stream, where was built a larger and more preten- 
tious fort, called "Fort du Portage," or "Fort Little Niagara"; 
this, the second Fort Little Niagara, being merely a depend- 
ency of the greater fort. It consisted of three good-sized 




Second Fort Little Niagara 

blockhouses made of logs, and between them, as well as 
between the outer ones and the bank of the river, were strong 
palisades. Near it were barracks for the soldiers, cabins for 
the Frenchmen employed thereabouts, and huts for the Indians 
who carried the stores and peltries up or down the portage. 
At one end of the barracks was built the stone chimney, which 
is still standing, the only existing relic of what was in its day 
an important military post. 

That fort stood until 1759, when its commandant, Joncaire 
(a son of that Joncaire previously mentioned), acting under 
orders from Fort Niagara, burned it, removed all its transport- 
able goods to a location on Chippawa Creek, and took its 

[27 ] 



garrison of sixty men to aid in the defense of the greater fort, 
which was being besieged by the British. This second Fort 
Little Niagara had been kept in a fair condition, for after its 
erection the French felt more secure in their supremacy on 
this frontier. At the same time, for the further protection of 
the portage and of its increasing business, they built and 
garrisoned fortified warehouses or small forts both at the top 
and at the foot of Lewiston Mountain, the former close to the 
portage roadway where it reached the crest of the mountain, 
the latter at its terminal on the river bank below, which was 
the head of the lower Niagara River's navigation. A year or 
so later they built two more warehouses alongside of the one 
at the foot of the mountain. This fort stood on the river 
bank, some thirty feet above the river. The Portage termi- 
nated at the water's edge below it, descending thereto through 
a gully which still exists. 

In 1754, Britain's aggressiveness and plans for war in the 
New World, caused France to make preparations for the 
inevitable coming struggle for control of North America. 
Fort Niagara, the one fort in the West that Britain specially 
coveted, was in a dilapidated state, in no condition to resist an 
attack by a large force. In 1755, France decided to greatly 
strengthen it, in fact, to entirely rebuild it; and that fall Pouchot, 
an experienced engineer, was sent there for that purpose. 
During the next three years, Pouchot was at Fort Niagara 
nearly half the time; at first as an engineer, later as its com- 
mandant. He made it a fort of enormous strength; built 
extensive new fortifications, extending from the lake to the 
river, thus increasing the enclosed area of the fort fully eight- 
fold, and built new barracks to accommodate the enlarged 
garrison. The work was commenced on January 14, 1756, 
appears to have been carried on uninterruptedly, and was not 
completed until October 12, 1757. All the earthworks on the 
land side, on the lines of the present ones, were constructed at 
this time. The palisades of the "old," or second Fort Niagara, 
were evidently removed on the completion of this new, or third 
Fort Niagara; but the buildings of the old fort (and it would 
seem that there were a number of them), so far as they were 
useful, were retained. In the spring of 1759 the fortifications 
were extensively repaired under Pouchot's supervision, and 
when, a month after their satisfactory completion, the British 
besieged it, Fort Niagara was the most important fort in the 
West. There were then inside of the walls twenty buildings, 

[ 28 ] 



at least four of them solid stone structures. It had accommo- 
dations for 1,000 men; its fortifications embraced some eight 
acres; its land side was heavily fortified; its lake and river 
sides being further protected by the steep banks. Its earth- 
work fortifications and four stone buildings, the former several 
times repaired, are to-day substantially as they were then. 

The story of the siege and capture of Fort Niagara need 
not be told here, but its surrender to the British in July, 1759, 
put an end forever to French control along this frontier. 

During the times both of her earlier influence and of her 
subsequent control over this region, which jointly extended 
over a period of ninety years, France had built twelve 
forts on the Niagara River, all on its eastern bank. Of these, 
one (Conti) had been accidentally burned; one (de Nonville) 
had been compulsorily abandoned ; one (second Little Niagara) 
had been intentionally destroyed; four (LaSalle, Hennepin, 
first Little Niagara, and Joncaire's) had been allowed to 
decay; two (first and second Fort Niagara) were now included 
in the third and greater fort of that name; while three (third 
Niagara, one at the foot, and one at the top of the mountain) 
passed into the hands of the victorious British. 




Fort Schlosser 

Built by the British 1760 ; to replace the Second 
Fort Little Niagara, burned by the French. 



[29 ] 



BRITISH FORTS 

WHEN Britain, through her victories over the French 
in 1759, succeeded to the control of the Western 
country, she had to contend with the remains of 
French influence among the Indians who had been the 
friends of her former rival, and she at once took steps partly 
to conciliate, partly to awe, those tribes. Of course, the 
maintenance of all existing forts was a necessary part of 
her policy. The former French forts in the West were 
strengthened and new ones were built there; and, of course, 
the defense of the territory on the Niagara River was not 
overlooked. The fortifications of Fort Niagara, badly bat- 
tered by their artillery during the siege, were repaired 
and strengthened by the British. The need of a fort at the 
upper end of the portage was imperative. So, in 1760, a 
new fort to replace the burned Fort Little Niagara was con- 
structed and named after its builder, Fort Schlosser. It was 
a strong fort; located some forty rods farther up stream, 
where the current was not so swift, and the water was 
deeper. It was a square earthwork and stockaded post, with 
four bastions; the inner plateau elevated, and the whole sur- 




Stedman House 



rounded by a ditch. A framework, which had been pre- 
pared by the French for a chapel at Fort Niagara, was carted 
over the portage by the British, and set up beside the 
stone chimney, for a "mess house." Here John Stedman, 
the master of the Portage lived; the building known as 
"Stedman's" — it was portholed. The warehouses, built by 
the French, still stood at the lower end of the portage, 
below the Mountain. The British constructed another fort 



[ 30 ] 



at this point, probably by surrounding these and some new 
structures with a stockade; and here two companies of soldiers 
were maintained, this fort having been finished during the 
year 1761. In 1764, when the British built an inclined railway 
up the bank, from the water's edge at this point, which was 
the head of navigation on the lower river, to the top of the 
mountain, this fort became of considerable importance. A 
better roadway over the Portage was next planned, and a 
contract for its construction made with John Stedman. The 
French had used but few carts, and these only for carrying 
boats, in transporting goods over the carrying place. By 
hiring the Senecas, each of whom would carry about 100 
pounds' weight on his shoulders, for this work (in 1750, some 
200 of them were thus employed regularly), they kept "the 
friendship chain" bright between themselves and the only 
tribe of the Iroquois that had not generally sided with the 
British against them. The British, partly overlooking this 
feature of the French policy, possibly as a punishment for 
past hostilities, not appreciating the resentment the Senecas 
would entertain, and in the interest of better transportation, 
decided to abandon the employment of carriers, and to use 
ox teams instead. Thus angered at the British, and recalling 
their former friendship for the French, the Senecas lent a 
willing ear to Pontiac's advances for a concerted hostile move- 
ment on the part of all the Western Indian tribes against 
France's conquerors. 

In September, 1763, Stedman completed the new portage 
road, and conducted the first wagon train over it from Fort 
Niagara to Schlosser. The next day on the return journey, 
as the train, guarded by soldiers, reached the spot now known 
as the "Devil's Hole," a large party of Senecas, who had 
concealed themselves in the woods, attacked it, slew and scalped 
the escort (but three of them escaping), rifled the wagons, and 
drove off the oxen. The garrison, in the fort at the foot of the 
mountain, hearing the guns, hurried to the relief of their com- 
rades, which was just what the Senecas had anticipated. 
They ambushed this party also; of the two companies that 
composed it but eight escaping, nearly one hundred British being 
slain in all. Britain was now compelled, for her own protec- 
tion, to thoroughly fortify the portage. Before traffic opened, 
in the spring of 1764, four hundred Senecas waited on Sir 
William Johnson, at his home in the Mohawk Valley, to sue 
for forgiveness. He was Britain's agent, with practically abso- 

[31 ] 



lute power, and exercised greater influence over the Indians 
than any white man who had ever dealt with them. He 
recognized that here was an unrivaled opportunity to advance 
Britain's interests, and he improved it. "Land for lives" was 
the policy that he adopted, and the Senecas gladly acquiesced. 
He consented to forgive the "Devil's Hole Massacre" if a 
strip of territory, fourteen miles long by four miles broad, 
embracing both banks of the river from Lake Ontario to a 
point above Fort Schlosser (thus embracing the whole length 
of the portage), should be ceded to the Crown. The Senecas 
agreed to complete this transfer at a great gathering of Indian 
tribes that was to be held, on Sir William's invitation, at Fort 
Niagara, in July of that year. Sir William knew that at that 
time he would have there an army sufficiently strong to compel 
them to carry out this agreement, so he arranged to have the 
entire length of the portage fully fortified before the date set 
for the treaty gathering. On May 19th, Captain John Mont- 
resor arrived at Fort Niagara. He was the engineer of General 
Bradstreet's army that during that very summer was to pro- 
ceed to the West, there to enforce British supremacy. He was 
now sent on in advance to make all provisions that Bradstreet's 
communications, after leaving Niagara, might not be inter- 




A Portage Blockhouse 

rupted. His first duty was to see to the safety of the portage, 
and along this he marked out sites for ten blockhouses, one 
about every twelve hundred yards, between Fort Schlosser and 

[ 32] 



the top of the mountain. In his journal he speaks of them 
as "redoubts" or "entrenchments," but they were ordinary 
blockhouses, the first story built of the trunks of trees, firmly 
set upright in the ground; the second story overhanging and 
formed of heavy framed logs ; the whole strongly built with a 
view to permanent occupancy. Plenty of men from the garri- 
sons at Fort Niagara and Fort Schlosser were detailed for the 
work of construction, ninety men being set at work on one of 
them. The "redoubt" nearest to Fort Schlosser, of which 
the embankment outlines are still traceable, was a "log work," 
instead of a stockade, this being made necessary on account of 




Portage Log Work 

the rocky nature of the ground. By June 6th, these ten forts 
were all completed, and were garrisoned as fast as finished. 
About a dozen men were quartered in each, which was defended 
by a cannon, a brass six-pounder. A cannon, of this caliber, 
was also placed at this time in the fort at the foot of the moun- 
tain. On July 13th, Captain Montresor received orders from 
General Bradstreet, to construct an additional "redoubt," "at 
the three-mile bridge," which point, from the distance typified 




The Eleventh Portage Blockhouse 
[33] 



in the name, was the scene of the "Devil's Hole Massacre." 
Bradstreet wanted that point, the one selected by the Senecas 
as the best along the portage for an attack, specially protected 
before his army reached it. One hundred and fifty men were 
at once detailed for this work, and the eleventh redoubt on 
the portage was speedily completed and garrisoned. The 
blockhouse surrounded by a fence, of which a reproduction is 
given herewith, is probably something like this last or eleventh 
blockhouse on the Portage, erected at the site of the Devil's 
Hole massacre. In order to facilitate the forwarding of the 
supplies, munitions, and boats of Bradstreet's army on its 
western journey, Montresor devised and built in 1 764 the first 
railway in America, an inclined plane (up the steep bank 
nearly four hundred feet high) from the head of navigation on 
the lower Niagara River to the top of the mountain above. 
And for its special protection he erected a fortified blockhouse 
and quarters for soldiers on the brow of the mountain at its 
upper end. These were supplemental to the fortified warehouse 
which the French had built near the same site in 1751, which 
stood back from the edge of the mountain. The lower ends 
of the logs which formed the lower story of this special block- 
house of Montresor were unearthed in 18 12 by the Americans 
in building Fort Gray on the same site. 

This blockhouse and the inclined railway are shown in the 
accompanying sketch. The fort and warehouses erected in 
1 76 1 by the British at the foot of the railway stood just beyond 
and around the foot of the mountain. 

Bradstreet had planned his western expedition with great 
care. He now foresaw the need of a depot for provisions at 
the point where Lake Erie pours its waters into the Niagara 
River; and he well knew that it must be a fortified post. So 
he requested Sir William Johnson to ask the Senecas for their 
consent to its erection. Sir William was just then in the midst 
of a good-sized land deal with that very tribe, which he expected 
to complete at the treaty gathering at Fort Niagara, where he 
and General Bradstreet then were. There had come to this 
treaty, and were then at Niagara, representatives of almost 
every Indian tribe, living between the Mississippi and the 
Central New York of to-day, save only the Senecas. Their 
presence was of more importance than that of any other tribe 
in America. They had not yet fully determined whether they 
would keep the agreement, so recently made with Sir William, 
as to the cession of the land along the Niagara River. But 

[ 35 ] 



he would attend to none of the important business, for which 
he had called the treaty assemblage, until he had settled with 
the Senecas for the "Devil's Hole Massacre." He sent a 
peremptory message to them, that if they did not at once 
attend, Bradstreet's army would be sent to annihilate them. It 
is needless to record that representatives of that tribe promptly 
repaired to Niagara. Then Sir William had them in his power, 
and intended that they should comply with General Bradstreet's 
request, but he managed it in his own way. Captain Mont- 
resor had already examined the lands, on both shores, at the 
source of the river, where the projected fort was to be built. 
He had ascended Buffalo Creek, and viewed the present loca- 
tion of the City of Buffalo, but as a site for the fortification, 
he selected a point "just at the discharge of the lake," on the 
western bank. The fact that the Senecas, through their 
conquest of the Neuters, owned this location, and that their 
consent was desirable, though it had not yet been asked, made 
no difference to Sir William. He knew perfectly well that if 
they came to the treaty gathering, they would not dare to 
refuse his request; and that if they did not come he could and 
would annihilate them. In either event Britain would own 
the desired strip of territory. The Ojibways, who were repre- 
sented at the treaty, occupied the land on the western bank 
of the river near Lake Erie, probably by consent of the Senecas. 
So Sir William in advance strengthened the position he intended 
to take, in case the Senecas failed to appear, by obtaining from 
the tribes present, including the Ojibways, "the liberty of 
building a post on the N. W. side of the river, at the mouth 
of Lake Erie." This permit was given on July 16th, and 
the very next morning Captain Montresor set out from Fort 
Niagara with five hundred men to begin work on it. Soon 
after that date representatives of the Senecas appeared, and 
when the treaty with them was signed, on August 6th, Article 
5 read: "In addition to the grant made by the Chenusio 
Deputys to His Majesty at Johnson Hall in April, of the 
lands from Fort Niagara to the upper end of the carrying 
place beyond Fort Schlosser, and four miles in breadth, on 
each side of the river, the Chenusios now surrender up all 
the lands from the upper end of the former Grant (and of the 
same breadth) to the Rapids of Lake Erie, to his Majesty for 
His sole use and that of the garrisons, but not as private prop- 
erty." The right to erect and maintain forts was all that Sir 
William wanted; once the territory was legally in the control 



36 



of the army, it made but little difference what the Indians 
claimed. The Senecas had been powerless to object; they 
were paying for the "Devil's Hole Massacre" and for self- 
preservation. Sir William's first demand had been for a 
territory fourteen miles long by four miles broad, comprising 
some 36,000 acres. This treaty granted more than double 
that acreage. It surrendered a tract thirty-six miles by four 
miles, or some 92,000 acres. Nearly one hundred British 
soldiers had been killed at the "Devil's Hole Massacre," so 
the Senecas paid approximately 1,000 acres for each and 
every scalp they then took. Yet, for them, it was a cheaply 
bought forgiveness. General Bradstreet wanted the new fort 
completed by July 30th. On July 31st, or six days before 
that treaty was signed, Captain Montresor had reported that 
the new post (he named it Fort Erie, the first of five structures 
that have been built at that point, all bearing the same name) 




' a 9 a n a. « 



First Fort Erie 



was "defensible." It was a "stockaded post," and consisted 
of a revetment made of stone surmounted by pickets facing 
the lake, and surrounded on the other three sides by a line 
of tree trunks sunk in the ground. It was built close to the 
water's edge, so as to be adjacent to the wharf. On its com- 
pletion, Britain's line of communication between Lake Ontario 
and Lake Erie was well guarded; Fort Niagara stood at one 
end, Fort Erie at the other; while the seven miles of land 
portage, around the Falls, had Fort Schlosser at its upper, 
and the forts respectively at the top and at the foot of the 
mountain at its lower extremity, with eleven blockhouses 
between them. At this treaty the Senecas also presented to 
Sir William Johnson all the islands in the Niagara River, and 
he promptly turned them over to the Crown. It is interesting 

[ 37 ] 



to note that Israel Putnam, the "Old Put" of the Revolution, 
is said to have been among the detachment of Connecticut 
troops that built this first Fort Erie. It is by no means improb- 
able, for he was with the Connecticut Provincial troops that 
were in Bradstreet's army then at Fort Niagara, and Mont- 
resor records that these Connecticut troops were among the 
builders. From now on, Fort Niagara, the most important 
fort off the seaboard, was kept up in a strong, defensive state. 
Its commander was the ruler of a large territory, extending 
both east and west. During the Revolution it was probably 
in the most important defensive condition of its entire history; 
and at that period there were within its walls at least seven 
stone and over a dozen wooden structures, besides a number 
of buildings outside of the ramparts. In 1766, probably on 
account of the great expense of maintaining so large a fort, 
"A Scheme, to inclose the present publick buildings at Niagara, 
and to prevent the expence of levling the old works," was 
presented to the military authorities, and was evidently care- 
fully considered; for in 1768, John Montresor, Engineer, 
"agreeable to an order he received from the Hon'ble Major 
Gen'l Gage, Commander in chief of his MAJESTY'S Forces 
in North America," submitted a "design for contracting this 
Post," his "plan" being to reduce its size to that of the second 
Fort Niagara, which is shown on the plan of the third Fort 
Niagara. He does not state therein whether he proposed to 
level the great earthworks or not, but evidently not; his idea 
being to erect a fort within the fort. The inner fort with four 
bastions was to be located at the extreme point of land, its 
defenses coinciding with those of the second Fort Niagara ; 
as in dotted lines is indicated the shape and area of that old 
fort. He also describes the "Castle" as having "a platform 
on the top." The sketch of the fort herewith given, showing 
the Castle with the second story and a peaked roof as built 
by the French, is taken from a very inaccurate drawing "made 
on the spot in 1758," attributed to Captain Jonathan Carver. 
Montresor's plan for a "contracted Post" does not seem to have 
been favored, for in 1770 and 1771, the two stone blockhouses 
were built outside of the lines of the contemplated "inner" 
fort; but inside of the earthworks, — adding much to the 
strength of the fort. This John Montresor, who had been 
intimately connected with the Niagara Frontier, where he 
had built more forts than any other man, was, in 1775, 
appointed by George III. as "Chief Engineer of America." 

[ 38] 



The Revolution, in actual warfare, never reached the 
Niagara Frontier, but Fort Niagara was a plague spot to the 
colonists. Here Brant and the two Butlers had their head- 
quarters, with those of their savages and rangers; here were 
planned, and from here started out, during the seven years of 




A View of jSTiag-aha Pout, 

/,,/v// /■',/ f //fll (ft/am /»/,„.>/>/,. 
&nwi' na //ft . /'/„'/ /'/i rjr,S. 



that war's duration, those murdering and marauding parties 
which devastated Western New York and Northern Pennsyl- 
vania. Among these expeditions were the ones that wrought 
the massacres of Wyoming and Cherry Valley; and it was to 
Fort Niagara that these, and many other similar expeditions, 
returned with their scalps and their booty. The capture of 
Fort Niagara was the ulterior object of General Sullivan's 
expedition sent out by General Washington in 1779. Had it 
not needlessly ceased its advance, after having defeated the 
Senecas in the Genesee Valley, it would have found the fort 
feebly garrisoned and surrounded by nearly 5,000 Indians, 
who, after their defeat had fled here, seeking the protection 
of the fort's cannon, as well as food, to prevent starvation. 
But it was not to be so. Fort Niagara was not then captured 
by force, and it was not until seventeen years afterward that 
the American flag floated over its ramparts, it being then 
evacuated peaceably by the British under the terms of Jay's 
Treaty. Fort Erie had frequently been mentioned in official 

[ 39] 



reports as practically useless for any defensive purpose; so in 
1779 work was commenced on another fort at that point. 
The location selected by Montresor in 1764 was at the water's 
edge, where the waves beat upon and undermined the founda- 
tions, thus necessitating constant repairs; and even these 
proved ineffectual. The new structure, the second Fort Erie, 
was intended to be rather more of a defensive work than its 
predecessor, so a location a little farther away from the water, 
and farther south, was selected. It was a blockhouse, defend- 
ing an adjacent storehouse and barracks, all surrounded on 
three sides with palisades, the water side "consisting of two 
bastions built of masonry upon a flat rock, and on the wall a 
stockade." It was built by Captain Matthews of the eighth 
regiment, under supervision of Lieutenant-colonel Bolton of 
the same regiment, who was then commandant at Fort Niagara. 
The new location was, no doubt, selected because of a better 
anchorage for vessels, the first fort being on the shore of the 
river where the current was swiftest, while opposite this new 
location there was much less current. 

After the close of the Revolution, Great Britain retained, 
by consent, five forts (of which Niagara was one) on concededly 
United States territory, as a guarantee that her subjects, known 
as United Empire Loyalists, still living under the new nation, 
should be allowed reasonable time and protection to dispose 
of their possessions and move from the country. It was pre- 
sumed, by the United States signers of the treaty of peace, 
that such occupation of these five forts would be of compara- 
tively short duration ; as a matter of fact it lasted for thirteen 
years, 1783 to 1796, being generally referred to as the "Hold 
Over" period. Not until 1795, on the ratification of Jay's 
Treaty with Great Britain, did that nation really abandon the 
hope of regaining control of her former colonies; although, 
after 1783, it would seem that all the smaller forts on the 
American side of the Niagara River were allowed to become 
much dilapidated, and after Jay's Treaty was signed all of 
these forts were practically abandoned. 

After the close of the Revolution, the Six Nations, who 
(with the exception of a part of the Oneidas and Tuscaroras) 
had been allies of the British, complained that Britain, having 
induced them to engage in the war, in the treaty of peace 
had made no provision for their protection by the United 
States, under whose control their territory now came. Brant 
had used his influence to have them remove to Upper Canada, 

[40 ] 



and many did so. Under his leadership a band of Mohawks 
had started westward in 1780; but on reaching Lewiston, 
which was in territory directly controlled by the British at 
Fort Niagara, they encamped and remained many months; 
later continuing their journey to Canada. East of Lewiston 
they had quite a settlement, and Brant lived among them in 
a blockhouse. This blockhouse is not included in my list of 
forts, for it is to be regarded rather as a private dwelling — 
fortified after the manner of Johnson Hall, the residence of 
Brant's brother-in-law, Sir William Johnson, in the Mohawk 
Valley — than as a regular fortification. 

CANADIAN FORTS 

In 1 79 1, the Province of Upper Canada was formed, Gen- 
eral John Graves Simcoe, a noted warrior, who believed in 
forts and fort-building, being its first governor. He estab- 
lished the capitol of his province at Newark, directly across 
the river from Fort Niagara, where it was both protected and 
controlled by the guns of that fort. He was fully persuaded 
that the new government of the United States would soon col- 
lapse, and that they would again become colonies of Great 
Britain, and that the control of Fort Niagara, which she then 
held, would never pass from her hands. 

In that same year, following the recommendations 
previously made by engineers, the foundations were laid 
for a new, the third, Fort Erie. Even as the second Fort 
Erie stood farther south than did the one Montresor built in 
1764, so this new structure was located still farther south. It 
stood on the low bluff, on a site which had previously been 
recommended as "at short musket shot" from the second 
fort. 

In 1 79 1, Governor Simcoe received orders, and made prepa- 
ration, to build a new portage road around the Falls of Niagara, 
which should be entirely on Canadian soil. This road ran 
from Queenston, at the upper end of the navigation on the 
lower river, to Chippawa Creek. In 1792, as a protection for 
its upper end, he built, on the northern side of that creek, 
some two hundred yards therefrom, and about the same dis- 
tance from the river, a blockhouse, surrounded by cedar posts, 
twelve feet high and enclosing about a rood of ground, which 
was known as Fort Chippawa, or Welland. Outside of this 
enclosure stood the usual barracks and storehouses. At about 
the same time, for the protection of the lower end of this same 

[41 ] 



portage, on the high bank of the river, in the present village of 
Queenston, he built another small fort of stone, its roof covered 
with some sort of metal, which, for the purpose of identifica- 
tion, I call Fort Queenston. 

In 1795, on the ratification of Jay's Treaty, which provided 
that in 1796 Great Britain should definitely conclude the 




Fort Chippawa 

"Hold Over" period and surrender possession of the five forts 
she was holding, Governor Simcoe at last realized that he 
must soon give up Fort Niagara. When that time came, his 
capitol would be at all times under the guns of a hostile fort, 
and no longer a desirable location. So he completed arrange- 
ments, already commenced, for its removal across the lake to 
York, now Toronto. In 1795, the Duke of Liancourt visited 
this region, and of Fort Erie he wrote, " Fort Erie, as it is called, 
though we know not why, consists of some houses roughly 
formed of wood, and surrounded with tottering palisaides. It 
has neither a rampart, a covered way, nor any other works. 
* * * It is to be considered merely as a point of defense 
against the Indians, for the British trade on the lakes." He 
added that all the buildings were blockhouses. Isaac Weld, 
who visited it in 1796, described it as "a small stockaded 
post." 

Fort George, planned and the site selected as early as 1789, 
was not commenced until 1796. According to the terms of 
Jay's Treaty, Fort Niagara was to be evacuated on June 1, 
1796; as a matter of fact, it was not until August nth that the 
British soldiers left it. They then crossed the river and occu- 
pied a stone blockhouse and wooden barracks that had recently 
been completed for their reception. These constituted the first 
Fort George, but, in 1799, they were enclosed with a heavy 
earthwork, making a fairly strong fort, this being the second 

[42 ] 



Fort George, whose outline is included in the plan of the third 
Fort George. As built, it was smaller and less pretentious 
than as planned by the government. When Britain, in 1796, 
gave up Fort Niagara, and with it the control, both military 
and civil, which while she occupied it she had necessarily 
exercised over all the territory on the eastern bank of the 
Niagara River, she had had possession of this frontier for 
thirty-seven years. During that period she had built thereon 
twenty forts, of which fourteen stood on the eastern, and six 
on the western bank of the river. Those fourteen on the 
eastern bank she surrendered to the United States, namely 
Fort Schlosser, eleven blockhouses along the portage, and the 
forts at the top and foot of the mountain, — every one of them 
being in a dilapidated condition, — for with the probability of 
surrendering them, they had been allowed to fall into decay. 
Of the six which she had built on the western bank, the first 
and second Fort Erie had been abandoned; the other four 
she still had : namely, third Erie, Chippawa, Queenston, and 
second George, the latter being the only one of any strength. 
Fort Niagara was in good repair; in fact, it was a stronger 
post than it had been when she laid siege to it in 1759. From 
1796, events gradually led up to the inevitable conflict between 
Britain and her former colonies which culminated in the 
"War of 18 12." For this, along the Niagara Frontier, Britain 
made far better preparations than had the United States. 
General Sir Isaac Brock had charge of the Canadian Frontier 
after 1806, and it was due to his foresight that such prepara- 
tions were made, both in the assembling of cannon and in the 
availability of troops. In 1806, Sir James Craig, governor of 
Upper Canada, received orders for, and began the construction 
of, a new fort at the source of the Niagara River. This was 
to be the fourth Fort Erie; and, unlike its predecessors, it was 
to be a permanent structure. It was erected quite a distance 
south of the site occupied by the existing fort. As each succes- 
sive Fort Erie, second, third, and fourth, was erected, a site 
farther south, away from the rapid current at the source of 
the Niagara River, was selected. It was a strong, but not 
remarkably large, earthwork fort, with two bastions, facing 
the river. There were heavy woods close to it on the land 
side, a line of pickets at a very blunt angle defending it in 
that direction. Facing the river, midway between but extend- 
ing far out in front of the bastions, was a ravelin. The possi- 
bility of this fort ever being attacked from the land side never 

[43 ] 



seems to have been considered by its builders. Inside of the 
earthworks were two large stone buildings, one used as a 
"mess house," the other for officers' quarters; besides barracks 
and other necessary buildings. These stone buildings were later 
on both enlarged and strengthened by the British. The plan of 
the fourth Fort Erie is included in that of the fifth Fort Erie. 

Plan of Third Fort George 

About 1 8 10, Fort George, under the immediate supervision 
of General Brock, was made into a very strong fort; its size 
being doubled by the erection of a second and connecting set 
of earthworks, making it one large fort with an earthwork 
division across its center, the buildings in the old portion being 
strengthened, and others erected in the new part. 




Third Fort George 



During her control of the entire Niagara Frontier, 1 759— 
i79i,Britain(as distinguished from Canada) had built seventeen 
forts, fourteen of them on the eastern bank. 



44 



Under Canadian control of the western bank, between 
1 79 1 and 1796, there were built three forts; five more were 
built later. 

When Britain evacuated American territory in 1796, of 
the fourteen forts which she had constructed on the eastern 
shore of the Niagara River, Schlosser, hardly defensible, was 
the only one of any value whatever. 




Old Stone Chimney 
I 45 ] 



UNITED STATES FORTS 

AT the end of the "Hold Over" period, the new nation 
garrisoned Fort Niagara and maintained it, but it 
L does not seem that any garrison was placed in Fort 
Schlosser, or that any repairs were then made thereto, as 
at the beginning of the nineteenth century it was a ruin. 

By 1800, the United States Government was ready to 
fortify the Niagara Frontier, projecting a military road from 
Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, and a fort near the source of the 
river. In 1801, General Wilkinson selected a site for the 
latter, and issued orders for the commencement of work on 
the former. The old road from Fort Niagara to the moun- 
tain was put in good shape; and, in 1802, the trees were felled, 
but not drawn off, along the proposed line from the mountain 
to Tonawanda Creek. As the first step toward the erection of 
the fort at Black Rock, the New York Legislature, in 1802, 
passed an act authorizing the holding of a treaty with the 
Senecas, for the purpose of the State's obtaining from them 
the cession of a large tract of land along the Niagara River, in 
order that it might cede to the Federal Government a site for 
a fort at Black Rock. At that treaty, the Senecas sold to the 
State their title to that part of "the mile strip" on the eastern 
bank of the Niagara River from Gill Creek to Lake Erie. 
Then the State of New York, under the wording of the act 
referred to, demanded that the Federal Government pay a 
part of the expense of holding the treaty. As the Federal 
Government wanted but a very few acres, whose proposed 
use was for the benefit of the inhabitants of the New York 
frontier, and as that State was unwilling to donate such a 
fort site without compensation, out of the 22,000 acres it had 
acquired at the treaty, it abandoned the project of a fort at 
Black Rock, and also the projected military road, for which, 
if there was to be no fort at the outlet of Lake Erie, there was 
then no requirement. The lack of any proper defenses on this 
frontier, when war was declared by the United States against 
Great Britain in 18 12, has been laid to this action of the State 
of New York, declining to further the plans of the Federal 
Government for the defense of this region. About 1807, the 
State recognized its folly, and such arrangements were con- 
cluded that a navy yard, a small affair, was established on the 
south side of Squajoqueta Creek at Black Rock, and a block- 

[47 ] 



house built for its protection. In 1809, the State of New 
York voted #1,500 to be used in extending the old military 
road, but that was the last attempt made to complete the 
project. 

During its existence as a nation, the United States has 
built but five forts on this frontier, while of the fifteen that 
came into our possession at the British evacuation in 1796, 
Fort Niagara was the only one of any strength whatever. 
To-day it is only a relic of the past. During the War of 18 12, 
we built two forts (Tompkins and Gray) on our own shore, 
neither of them of any strength — and enlarged for temporary 
use, Fort Erie on Canadian soil. Two months later we 
destroyed and abandoned it. Fort Porter was built in 1844, 
and the works razed in if 




Fort Black Rock 



[48] 



WAR OF '12 FORTS 

WHEN the War of 1812 was declared, the only United 
States forts on this frontier were Niagara, in an 
excellent state at the mouth of the river; the Black 
Rock Blockhouse near its source ; Schlosser, which was valueless. 

At the same period, the only fortifications on the Canadian 
shore were Fort George, a strong fort at its mouth, and Fort 
Erie at its source; though Fort Chippawa was in existence, 
but of little account. But when in October, 18 12, hostilities 
began along the Niagara River, it is reported that there were 
one hundred cannon on the Canadian frontier, brought there 
in preparation therefor. This explains how they were able to 
equip so many batteries along a very sparsely settled frontier. 

I do not propose to discuss the War of 18 12, except so far 
as its operations relate directly to the forts along this frontier 
that existed when it began, or were built during its continuance, 
for these forts played a prominent part in that struggle. After 
the declaration of war in August, 18 12, the Americans built 
Fort Tompkins (or Adams as it was also called) on the top of 
the bluff, at the bend of Niagara Street, where the street rail- 
way barns stand to-day, in the city of Buffalo. It was a 
rather pretentious earthwork mounting seven guns, and was 
the largest of several fortifications erected during that summer 
along the shore in the villages of Buffalo and Black Rock — the 
others being known as "batteries," and enumerated further on. 

The Americans at this time also built, on the brow of Lewis- 
ton Mountain, near the edge of the gorge, a small but substantial 
earthwork, called "Fort Gray" after its builder, Nicholas Gray. 

The first actual hostilities of that war along this frontier 
occurred on October 13, 18 12, in the battle of Queenston 
Heights; on the same day Forts Niagara and George bom- 
barded each other, and Forts Tompkins and Erie did likewise. 
A month later Fort George, and several batteries that had been 
constructed near it, again opened fire on Fort Niagara; that 
fort, with its adjacent batteries, replied in kind. It is recorded 
that 2,000 cannon balls were fired at Fort Niagara, within the 
space of one day, besides 180 shells. That fort's reply, while 
spirited, was not so great numerically, but was more effective. 

A cannonade lasting a whole day, during which fully 3,000 
cannon balls were fired, at a range of not over three-quarters 
of a mile, in which only about half a dozen men were killed, 

[49 ] 



and very few wounded, and as a result of which neither fort 
was even seriously damaged, sounds almost incredulous in 
these days of long-range effective artillery. But it was war — 
bitter war — at close range. 

It was during this bombardment that Fanny Doyle, whose 
husband, a United States soldier, had been taken prisoner at 
the battle of Oueenston, served one of the cannon at Fort 
Niagara, said in some accounts to have been on the roof of 
the Castle, all day long with hot shot. She explained her 
service by saying that "since the British prevented Pat from 
fighting against them, she would take precious good care, as 
his substitute, that they made nothing by his absence." Accord- 
ing to Captain McFeeley's official report she "showed fortitude 
equaling that of the Maid of Orleans." Early in 1813, the 




Fanny Doyle, at F< 



British built a heavy earthwork, on the extreme top of Oueens- 
ton Heights, which they called Fort Drummond. It was of 
little use to them, for in May of that year, the Americans 
captured Fort George — Fort Drummond thereby coming into 
their control. 

The Americans repaired Fort Schlosser, making it suitable 
for a garrison of 200 men; but only about twenty were in 
it when it was captured by the British in a dash across the 
river from Chippawa, on July 4, 18 13. They held it only 
long enough to enable them to remove the guns and military 

[ 50 ] 



stores. In that same month British troops crossed to Black 
Rock, burned the blockhouse at the navy yard, occupied Fort 
Tompkins, carrying off some of its guns and spiking others, 
before they were repulsed. That was the Battle of Buffalo. 

The Americans, after holding Fort George during the 
summer and fall of 1813, evacuated it hurriedly, leaving it 
intact, in December of that year. But, though it was the dead 
of winter, they burnt the adjacent village of Newark on very 
short notice. Bitterly angered at this, in retaliation therefor, 
ten days later, the British, by night, captured Fort Niagara, 
surprising it, gaining entrance and possession without hardly 
a struggle. As the American soldiers emerged from the bar- 
racks, many were bayoneted, not even those in the hospital 
being spared. Then, on signal, a large British force, aug- 
mented by a band of blood-thirsty savages, crossed over to 
the American side, and devastated that frontier from Fort 
Niagara to Tonawanda Creek, murdering many of the inhabit- 
ants, burning every building, destroying Fort Gray, and what 
little remained of Fort Schlosser. Returning to their own 
side, a few days later they appeared at Fort Erie, where they 
crossed to Buffalo and Black Rock, completely destroying 
both of those villages and the forts and batteries therein. 

With the commencement of the spring of 18 14, the British 
built Fort Mississauga (or Riall), a stone blockhouse sur- 
rounded by a strong earthwork, on the Canadian lake shore 
near the mouth of the river. They had long desired a fort at 
this point, but as the site was absolutely commanded by the 
guns of Fort Niagara, they were unable to build it, until they 
were in possession of that fort. The British retained the con- 
trol of the territory on both sides, at the mouth of the river, 
during the rest of the War of 18 12; so Fort Mississauga was 
not during that war, nor has it ever been since, the scene of 
any hostilities. It is to-day in a state of excellent preservation. 

In July, 1 8 14, the Americans captured Fort Erie, which 
surrendered on demand without resistance, to the great dis- 
gust of the British general in command of the Frontier. From 
this base the American army proceeded down the Canadian 
bank of the river, where, during that same month, were fought 
the Battles of Chippawa and Lundy's Lane; after which the 
depleted American army returned to Fort Erie, where, a 
few days later, it was besieged by the reinforced British. 
To Fort Erie, the Americans, during those days of quiet, hur- 
riedly added two strong earthwork bastions on the land side, 

[ 51 1 



making a new fort, fifth Fort Erie; which fronted toward the 
land as well as toward the river, largely increasing its size 
and efficiency, in preparation for the siege that was sure to 
follow. They further defended it by an entrenchment and 
abattis, starting at the river's shore, east of the northerly 
line of the fort extending to and around the old fort, but inside 
of the two new bastions; thence, for some 2,000 feet to the 
south, where it curved around a small elevation, called Snake 
Hill, to the lake shore. Along this entrenchment were placed 
four batteries, one at either of its extreme ends and two nearer 
its center. 

As thus reconstructed, Fort Erie faced inland, as did these 
connecting works ; between which and the river was an enclosed 
area of some fifteen acres, where was the American camp. It 
had been planned to carry this abattis still farther to the south, 
so as to enclose an additional area to be used as a camp for 
the militia : but this was never done, the smaller area being 
most sufficient for both the regulars and volunteers, the line 
being already as long as could well be amply defended with 
the forces therein, even when augmented by the reinforcements 
expected. 

On August 2, 1 8 14, the British army appeared before Fort 
Erie. Their first move was an attempt to capture the villages 
of Buffalo and Black Rock (which to some extent had been 
rebuilt), thus compelling the surrender of the fort. Being 
defeated in this project, they began a regular siege. During 
a period of six weeks, they built a long line of entrenchments 
and abattis, starting at the water's edge, and extending for 
nearly half a mile inland, about five hundred yards distant 
from the fort. Along this line they had three distinct siege 
batteries, marked on the plan, Nos. 1, 2, 3; and a fourth one 
had been almost completed at the time of the sortie. On this 
line also they built two blockhouses, making it a most formid- 
able siege work. On the night of August 15th, they made a 
terrific attack on the fort; in fact, it was a series of heroic 
charges, each repulsed, with dreadful loss of life. The whole 
attack lasted for some three hours, the British finally storming 
the northwest bastion, one of the two new ones just built by 
the Americans, from which repeated attempts were made to 
dislodge them. All of a sudden, whether by accident or by 
design it has never been determined, when the British forces 
filled the bastion, the magazine therein blew up with a terrific 
explosion, and with fearful loss of life to the British, who were 

[ 53] 




Fort Erie during the Siege, 1814 



thus compelled to abandon the attack; their killed and wounded, 
during the attack and in the explosion, numbering about 1,000 
men. The land just outside the earthworks of Fort Erie 
became a veritable graveyard, the bodies, including the burned 
and maimed remains of those who perished in the explosion, 
being buried in long trenches, dug in the open space there- 
abouts. 

It was with the object of avoiding further attacks like this, 
and especially to end the siege and rout the enemy, that General 
Peter B. Porter, a major-general of volunteers, who had been 
conspicuous in the war along the frontier, and was then in 
command of the militia at Fort Erie, proposed a sortie from 
the fort. General Brown finally requested him to draw up a 
detailed plan thereof, which he did. General Brown then 
approved the project, gave instructions for the preparations 
therefor, asking General Porter to lead the main column. On 
the afternoon of September 17, 18 14, in a driving rain storm, 
it was executed. General Porter's troops, in three columns, 
left the camp at its southern limits, made a long detour through 
the woods, attacked the British line of defense at its western 
end, carried the west blockhouse, the not fully completed 
Battery No. 4, the trenches as far east as Battery No. 3, and 
that battery; and being there joined by Colonel Miller's com- 
mand, which had directly approached the British entrench- 
ments through a ravine due north of the fort, they then broke 
through, and carried the works, to and including Battery 
No. 2. The reserves on both sides now arrived; after a sharp 
fight, the works in front of Battery No. 1, which were the most 
intricate of all, were captured and that battery was stormed, 
the British abandoning it. The American line was then 
formed, to the north of the British entrenchments, for the pro- 
tection of the detachments, engaged in spiking the enemy's 
guns and demolishing the captured works as much as was 
possible in a brief space of time. The object of the sortie 
having been accomplished, the American forces were ordered 
back to the fort, though the British force, having been further 
reinforced from its main camp, two miles away, attacked them 
determinedly as they left the line of siege works. The British 
loss in killed, wounded, and missing, at this sortie, was admitted 
by General Drummond, the British commander, as nearly 
six hundred. A few days later, Drummond raised the siege, 
withdrawing his troops northward. The sortie had been 
eminently successful. Sir William Napier refers to it as a 

[ 55 ] 



" brilliant achievement — the only instance in history where a 
besieging army was entirely broken up and routed by a single 
sortie." 

Early in November, 1814, Fort Erie, no longer of use to 
the Americans, was mined and blown up by them. Its per- 
fectly traceable earthworks, including the bastion that was the 
scene of the explosion, and the ruins of two of its stone build- 
ings, render it an interesting historical spot. Fort Niagara 
was restored to the Americans in March, 18 15, after the 
treaty of peace was signed. 

During the duration of the war, Britain had erected, as 
already noted, two forts along this frontier; which, added 
to the twenty-three heretofore enumerated as having been built 
by her previously, make up the twenty-five forts she had built in 
all hereabouts. 

At one time or another, during the war, along this river, 
every fort on the Canadian shore (save only Mississauga, 
after whose erection no hostilities occurred in its vicinity), and 
also every battery, was captured by the Americans. And, 
similarly, at some period during the war, every fort and every 
battery on the American shore was captured by the British. 

In August and September, 18 14, this curious feature was 
to be seen on this frontier : at the source of the Niagara River 
the Americans were in possession, not only of their own side, 
but also of the British Fort Erie ; while, only thirty-six miles 
away, at the mouth of that same stream, the British controlled 
not only their own shore, but also the American Fort Niagara. 



57 



FORT NIAGARA TO-DAY 

FORT Niagara, as it stands to-day, with the exception 
of the Citadel at Quebec, is the best preserved old 
fortification in North America; and bears within its 
ramparts the existing relics of French, British, and United 
States occupation, the earliest of these dating back over a 
century and three-quarters. 

LAKE ONTARIO 



14 




FORT 
N I A G A R A 




N I A G ABA 



BI V EB 



Castle, stone, begun 17Z6. 
Bake house, stone, rebuilt 1762. 
Modern wooden building. 
Hot shot Furnace, rebuilt 1839. 
Magazine, stone (Morgan dungeon), 1757. 
Barracks, stone, 1757. 
Blockhouse, stone, 1770. 
Blockhouse, stone, 1771. 



Earthworks, 1757. 

Ravelin, 1757. 

British cemetery, still in use. 

Stone walls, lower part 1830, upper part, 1839. 

Site French cemetery, the first consecrated 

ground in Western New York. 
Well, possibly dug 1726. 
Entrance gate. 



Of its seven stone buildings, the castle (begun 1726 and 
finished 1727) is to-day substantially as it was then, except 
for its one door instead of two; while the present timbered 

[ 59 ] 



roof was added after 1814. The first lighthouse on the Niagara 
River was placed on the cupola of this castle in 1823. 

The magazine, whose real top is a thick stone arch now 
covered with a shingled roof, and which in 1826 acquired 
international fame as the dungeon where William Morgan, of 
anti-Masonic reputation, was confined and last seen alive, 
dates from 1757. 

The long low Barracks was built by the French in 1757. 

The bakeshop was rebuilt by the British in 1762. 

The south blockhouse was constructed in 1770, while the 
north blockhouse was built the following year. The former 
protected the "Land Gate," or entrance to the fort, from that 
side, and as a further protection, the roadway which led up to 
and through the fortifications by a flight of steps, was carried 
through the lower story of this blockhouse. In its north and 
south faces, the stone arches over that old passageway are still 
plainly visible, although the openings in the walls have been 
filled in with masonry. The accompanying illustration, 
obtained by photographs from plans in the British Museum, 
show also how the roofs of both these blockhouses were used 
as "batteries," two brass six-pounders upon field carriages, 



s j; a tion Md Ml js r^t tton 

of a 

STONE l\BDOITT 





South Blockhouse, Fort Niagara 

en barbette, and commanding the whole country within their 
range, having been mounted on each of them. The heavy 

[61 ] 




"*f-^k* 



French Magazine at Fort Niagara, as Built in 1757. It is the Same To-day — the Outside 
Walls Plastered, and a Shingle Roof Placed Over the Stone-Arch Roof 




French Magazine at Fort Niagara in 19 14 



beams, supporting the roof on which these cannon stood, were 
just above the level of the thin projecting stone bands or 
cornices, the masonry above them being merely a protection for 
the gunners. The modern shingle roofs are, of course, much 
lower than the old roofs that were merely coverings over the 
guns. Cannon were mounted on them, and used effectively 
by the Americans in the War of 1812. These two blockhouses 
are the best specimens of the old blockhouse form of defense 
to be found anywhere. The "Hot Shot" furnace was rebuilt 
in 1839. Similar, but cruder, structures were located near 
the various batteries on the fortifications, prior to the War of 
1 8 12, and were in use at that time. The earthworks, including 




Old French Barracks, Fort Niagara in 19 14 

the ravelin on the east, are the identical work of 1757; though, 
until some time after the War of 18 12, these fortifications 
extended clear to the bluff, both on the lake and on the river 
side; several times repaired, both by the British and by the 
United States. The present "casemates," as also the brick 
facings of the ramparts, were constructed about 1861. The 
stone wall along the bluff, on the river side, protecting that 
face of the fort, replaced a line of timber fortifications, formed 
of trunks of large trees, set upright and sloping inward. The 
lower part of this wall was built about 1830, and was 
heightened in 1839. 



[ 63 



SINCE 1815 

SINCE the close of the War of 1812, Great Britain has 
erected no fortification along this river; the United States 
has built but one, and that not in a spirit of hostility, 
but with a view rather of preventing our ever again, through 
the lack of troops hereabouts, being drawn into unnecessary 
international complications, such as had occurred, in the affair 




The "Keep" at Fort Porter 

of the steamer "Caroline," during the so-called "Patriot War" 
against Great Britain, on this frontier. 

In 1 844, the United States completed Fort Porter, named after 
the hero of the sortie from Fort Erie, in the city of Buffalo. It 
was a large stone building, sixty-two feet square, two stories high, 
casemated, with underground cellars. Surrounding the struc- 
ture, with a moat between on all sides, was a powerful earthwork. 
Several cannon were placed on the roof of the building, whose 
outer walls were extended upwards as a semi-protection for 
them. 

The huge stone "keep" or blockhouse was probably the 
largest blockhouse in America; and the best example of that 

[64 ] 



kind of defense (the last word in blockhouses) anywhere. Its 
demolition was an example of historical blundering; the need- 
less destruction of a fine relic of martial architecture. 

Since the acquisition of our Niagara Frontier, the United 
States have built four forts thereon, three of them (the Black 
Rock Blockhouse, Tompkins, and Gray) being destroyed by the 
enemy in the War of 1812. The great blockhouse and the ram- 
parts of Fort Porter have entirely disappeared with the consentof 
the government; that fort never having seen any actual warfare. 
The fourteen forts or blockhouses that, besides Fort Niagara, 
came into our possession at the close of the " Hold Over" period, 
were useless when they were surrendered to us. Fort Niagara 
remains, in excellent condition, a relic, not a defensive work — 
for its fortifications would be useless against modern artillery. 
But it is so interesting a spot, of such age and historic interest, 
that a few data concerning it have been noted herewith. 




Fort Niagara from Lake 



[ 65 



BATTERIES ON THE FRONTIER 

BESIDES the forts heretofore enumerated, there have 
been built along this frontier somewhat more than 
eighty temporary batteries, seven of them constructed 
by the British, during their siege of Fort Niagara in 1759; 
two of them at Four Mile Creek, where the besiegers landed ; 
three were long trenches or "parallels," dug on the lake shore 
at right angles thereto, just east of the fort. In these, as the 
besiegers successively neared the ramparts, were mounted their 
heavy guns. They also built a battery on the Canadian shore 
directly opposite the fort at what was then called Montreal 
Point. About a mile to the south of the fort, they built a revet- 
ment of logs to aid them in resisting the French force that was 
hastening to the relief of the besieged garrison, and here they 
defeated it. 

When the Patriots had their headquarters on Navy Island, 
during the "Rebellion" of 1837, they erected at least four 
batteries or fortifications on the shore of that island facing the 
Canadian bank. The British in turn planted guns and mor- 
tars behind protective works, four in number, on the main 
shore opposite. 

The great majority of these eighty batteries were built 
(some by the Americans, some by the British) during the excit- 
ing times of the War of 18 12. Let me enumerate them, fol- 
lowing the course of the river. 

On what is now known as "The Terrace," in the city of 
Buffalo, the Americans built a small earthwork, which was 
lightly armed, and on the high bank near the southerly line 
of the grounds of Fort Porter was another, "Gookins" (one 
heavy gun — a twenty-four-pounder). Below the bank, near 
the present location of the city water works plant, stood an 
earthwork, protecting one eight-inch mortar, usually referred to 
as "The Old Sow." The fortification next in line was Fort 
Tompkins, already described ; while a little to the south of Ferry 
Street, on the high bank, stood "Gibson's" Battery of three 
guns. Just north of Ferry Street was "Dudley's Battery; 
north of that was "Swift's" Battery, and on the south side of 
Conjaquadie's Creek near its mouth, was another of three 
guns, thirty-two-pounders, known as the "Sailors' Battery." 
At the Battle of Black Rock, on the creek, Major Morgan 
erected a battery to prevent the British rebuilding the bridge 

[ 66 ] 



he had torn away. During their occupation of Fort Erie in 
1 8 14, the Americans not only added two bastions thereto, as 
recorded, but also added a line of entrenchments or abattis, 
extending from the river around the old fort, and some 2,000 
feet beyond it southwards, to a small elevation called "Snake 
Hill," and around that to the water. On that hill (the southern 
limit of these entrenchments) was located Towson's Battery 
of six guns ; while between the fort proper and the water, the 
Douglas' Battery of two guns guarded the line. Between the 
fort proper and Snake Hill were placed Fontaine's (sometimes 
called Fanning's) Battery with two guns, and Biddle's Bat- 
tery of three guns. 

On their own side on high ground back from the river, and 
nearly opposite the American end of the ferry, the British 
built four separate and distinct batteries, and at some dis- 
tance south of these they had three others. At the siege of 
Fort Erie they built, about five hundred yards from it, extend- 
ing inland from the water, a very long line of entrenchments 
and abattis. Along this line they had three separate siege 
batteries, besides one that was only partially completed at the 
sortie; on this entrenchment were also two blockhouses. 

On the island at the mouth of Chippawa Creek they had 
a battery known as the "Tete du Pont," while on the north 
bank were two others defending the bridge. Near the mouth 
of that creek, on the river's shore, were three other batteries. 
The "batteries" mentioned in various accounts of the Battle 
of Chippawa as worked by United States troops (Towson's, 
Ritchie's, Hindman's, and Biddle's), I imagine, were merely 
field artillery hurriedly brought into action and served without 
any defensive works in front of them. The same is a fact in 
reference to the famous "battery" on the hill, at Lundy's 
Lane, around which centered the main battle; which was 
placed in position by the British and worked by them with 
such effectiveness, and was later stormed by the Americans 
under Colonel Miller, and held by them. The British had a 
small battery built of stone, below the Falls, near the river bank, 
where the Indian ladder formerly stood; and two others, 
with eighteen-pounders, stood on the hill half a mile away. 

On Queenston Heights the British had one battery, and 
a little below the summit they had what was known as the 
"Redan Battery," which so hampered the Americans while 
they were crossing the river at the Battle of Queenston, and 
which they captured. In it were some eighteen-pounders and 

[ 67 ] 



two howitzers ; also one on the river bank at the exact 
foot of the heights. On the high bank in the village of 
Queenston they had another battery, an extended work; a 
mile below on a point of land on the river, that still bears the 
same name, stood "Vrooman's" Battery, which commanded 
the river up to Lewiston ; opposite the Five-mile Meadows they 
had another battery on Brown's Point. The Americans had 
built two batteries on the high bank in Lewiston, and two 
others half a mile above and below. They also had one near 
Five-mile Meadows. Lossing records, that on the Canadian 
bank between Queenston Heights and Fort George, a distance of 
six miles, there were batteries averaging one to each half mile. 
Besides the three named above, in Queenston, Vrooman's 
Point, and Brown's Point, I have found references to only three 
other Canadian batteries in that particular distance, but on 
the map I have added three, Lossing's estimate. 

The Canadian shore, from above Fort George to the extreme 
mouth of the river, a distance of about two miles, was one 
succession of them, six being specially mentioned. Directly 
opposite on the American shore was a similar line, extending 
from Fort Niagara to a point south of the village of Youngs- 
town, six being specifically noted within this distance of a 
mile, the most important being the "Salt Battery," situated in 
the above named-village. 

This battery was so called because it was hastily built with 
400 barrels of salt : a cargo arriving from Oswego on one of 
Porter Barton's vessels, just when a protected battery was 
needed at the dock where she moored. 

On the Canadian shore of Lake Ontario, within a mile of 
the river, were two batteries — not shown on the map — which 
confronted the U. S. troops when landing at Battle of Fort 
George. 



I 68 ] 



SUCH is the chronology of how the famous Niagara 
Frontier has figured in the war story of the nations; 
of the forts that have been built, of the work that has 
been done, of the hardships that have been endured, of the 
battles that have been fought, and of the victories that have been 
won; as this wondrous region passed successively from the 
control of the Indians to France, from France to Great Britain, 
and along its eastern shore from Great Britain to the United 
States. 

Necessarily, by reason of limited scope, it includes merely a 
reference to many important military operations — the horrors 
of war, such as the burning of Newark, and of Buffalo, 
and the devastation of the entire American frontier; and no 
details of the Patriot nor Fenian wars. Yet through all of 
these the Niagara Frontier was called anew to the attention of 
the world. Among the many aspects in which it has pre- 
sented itself to the world's attention, its martial record is by no 
means the least important nor the least instructive, in the 
long and many-sided story of the Niagara Frontier. 



IN the interest of history, it should be stated that the illus- 
trations in this pamphlet of forts Hennepin, Conti, DeNon- 
ville, Joncaire, the typical block houses and the log work 
on the portage, the 1757 French magazine, the inclined rail- 
way, and Forts Chippawa and Black Rock were drawn (by 
Preston B. Porter) after incomplete descriptions found in early 
books. 

The fort of the Eries and Kienuka are taken from School- 
craft's Works; the First Fort Erie is from Montresor's own 
drawing; Second Little Niagara, Stedman's House, and plan of 
Schlosser are from drawings made by a man, who, as a child, 
lived in that house in 1806. The others are from old books 
or magazines, or are modern photographs. 



[69] 



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